First Ward hopeful John Clark aims to boost citizen engagement

Saturday

Mar 29, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 29, 2014 at 1:00 AM

Andrew Denney

The issues the Columbia City Council discusses during its regular meetings on the first and third Mondays of the month change from meeting to meeting, but a few details remain constant: The meetings start at 7 p.m., are held in the council chamber at City Hall, and John Clark is in attendance to offer up advice to the council.

Clark, a loquacious attorney and former president of the North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association, is seeking a position where he no longer will be held to the three-minute time limit on public comment — he is running as a write-in candidate for the open First Ward seat on the council.

With rapid population growth expected in Columbia in the coming years, Clark said the city needs to make sure it has its infrastructure and financing plans in order before more development moves forward. So, he said, the time feels right for him to step forward to become a council member himself.

"As things developed, I realized that this was a very cusp year," said Clark, 71.

The candidates for the First Ward seat are Tyree Byndom, an activist and radio host for 89.5 KOPN who helped reboot the Douglass Park Neighborhood Association; Ginny Chadwick, a University of Missouri graduate student who served as First Ward Councilman Fred Schmidt's campaign treasurer; and Bill Easley, an Army veteran who has volunteered for community groups.

Schmidt is retiring from the council after one term, citing time constraints with serving on the council and running his accounting firm.

Clark said that if elected he would call for the city to develop infrastructure funding plans decades in advance and work for the implementation of policy recommendations contained within Columbia Imagined, a comprehensive land-use plan that the council adopted last year.

Columbia Imagined suggests that neighborhood and homeowners associations could come together with the city to form neighborhood land-use plans, which could help to guide infill development.

Clark said he would like to see neighborhood associations "cover" the First Ward to amplify residents' voices in the planning process.

"My mission is to facilitate the engagement of citizens in public decision-making," Clark said.

Clark has participated in meetings of the People's Visioning citizens group, an independent group that has issued policy recommendations to the council.

Bruce Watts, a member of the group, praised Clark for his in-depth knowledge of the history of city policy over the past few decades and for putting his mind to complex issues facing the city.

"I think he's a real treasure for the city because he's definitely watched closely with a great deal of interest," Watts said.

Former Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl, who served on the council from 2010 to 2013, said Clark is "genuinely interested in city business," but he said Clark is one of a handful of residents who attend virtually every council meeting and offer comment on a wide range of issues instead of focusing their energy on a few key issues.

"I think they lose their effectiveness by having a strong opinion on everything," Kespohl said.

This is not the first time Clark has run for council. In 2004, he won 25 percent of 11,376 votes in a three-way race against Mayor Darwin Hindman and Arch Brooks. He took on Hindman again in 2007 in a two-way race and received 24 percent of 12,895 votes.

The next year he ran a four-way race for the First Ward seat in which he received a smaller percentage of votes — he received 63 votes out of 1,364 cast. Clark was working for 89.5 KOPN at the time and his workload at the station had recently increased.

He said he feels that he received a smaller percentage of votes because he had less time to campaign than he did in his unsuccessful bids for mayor.

While write-in candidacies generally are considered to be long-shot efforts for cities of Columbia's size, past council members have had success as write-in candidates. In 1984, Don Mosby was elected to the Second Ward seat on the council as a write-in candidate and, two years later, write-in candidate Rodney Smith was elected Columbia mayor.

Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren has advised that First Ward voters who wish to cast a valid ballot for Clark will need to write in his name on the ballot and fully darken the circle next to his name.

This article was published in the Saturday, March 29, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Clark aims to boost citizen engagement: Candidate gets to all meetings."